Holland boss Bert van Marwijk is confident his team is ready for Uruguay in the World Cup semi-finals on Tuesday.

The Dutch have reached the final four of the tournament with an uncustomary defensive approach but van Marwijk believes it is this style which will help the Oranje overcome a spirited Uruguayan outfit.

"When I took over this job, my first goal was to teach the team to defend better," he told FIFA.com.

"Because we haven't scored that many goals so far in this World Cup, people see it differently as they only associate attractive football with lots of goals. But we still play attractive football.

"Uruguay are a team of fighters. They battle and survive. That is why they have reached the semi-finals. We must certainly not underestimate them, otherwise things will go wrong for us."

And van Marwijk assured Dutch fans that the 2010 team would not let them down.

"We have been down this road before in the past with other Dutch teams and the Dutch people have been let down time and again," he added.

"We have to take the duel with Uruguay very seriously because, mentally, it is difficult to get yourselves back into the mix after a victory against Brazil.

"It has now been two years that I have been trying to get the players to understand that in order to be world champions, they must shine regularly without ever letting up. We haven't succeeded in our mission yet. The target, to be crowned champions, is not yet achieved."